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Halo 2 Story Summary

The Heretic / Armory / Cairo Station
The opening cutscene shows the two major plot threads that will progress through Halo 2: the fate of Master Chief, Sergeant Johnson, and the rest of the human forces, which includes Commander Miranda Keyes, the daughter of the late Captain Jacob Keyes, and Lord Hood, apparently a ranking official in UNSC; and the fate of an unnamed gold Covenant Elite we come to know as The Arbiter, who was in command of the Covenant forces at Halo installation 04 and is consequently disgraced, accused of heresy, and then secretly sent on a special mission by the three Prophet Hierarchs of the Covenant: Truth, Mercy, and Regret.

The Arbiter is blamed for allowing the Pillar of Autumn to escape from Reach to Halo, as well as for the Master Chief's destruction of that ring. The Arbiter blames this on the Flood parasite and his inability to predict the Chief's actions. He is stripped of his rank and armor, and tortured by the white-mohawked Brute, Tartarus. These scenes also reintroduce us to the massive, hairy, apelike Brute race, first seen in the E3 2003 realtime demo. A more recent addition to the Covenant, they seem less sophisticated and less honorable than the Elites, although no less brutal and fearsome.

The Master Chief and Sergeant Johnson are decorated for their service on board the orbital defense station Cairo, but the ceremony is interrupted by a relatively small Covenant fleet led by the Prophet of Regret. The Cairo, as well as other orbital defense stations, such as the Malta, are boarded by Covenant forces. Lord Hood orders Commander Keyes to get aboard her ship, In Amber Clad and orders the Master Chief to repel the station's boarders.

While battling the Covenant boarders, Cortana reveals to you that the Covenant have placed a bomb on board, apparently planning to destroy the orbital stations and their deadly MAC guns to make it safe for the approach of a larger fleet. Master Chief locates this bomb, takes it with him to a hangar bay, and free falls through space with it, guiding it into a Covenant ship before safely hard-landing on the hull of In Amber Clad. In this level you'll encounter the first of several new units, the insect-like Drones that can fly.

Editor's Note: Longtime fans will, of course, recognize the final cutscene of this level from Halo 2's announcement trailer revealed in early 2002; the addition of the sea urchin-like Covenant bomb makes perfect sense, plot-wise, but detracts somewhat from the romance of the scene; in the original trailer half of the impact comes from wondering exactly what the Chief hopes to achieve by hurling himself out a hangar window, a question that conjures images of him improvising a one-man boarding party on a Covenant cruiser.

Outskirts / Metropolis
Johnson and the Chief head down to Mombassa, Africa in a Pelican and are shot down by a large four-legged Covenant land vehicle called a Scarab. They progress through the streets of Old Mombassa, across a suspension bridge into New Mombassa, and eventually find and destroy the Scarab. On the way you encounter the new-look Hunters with upgraded weaponry; they are no longer vulnerable to single shot kills. You'll also see Jackals without their tell-tale shields, which means they are toting Beam Rifles, the Covenant sniper weapon.

After the destruction of the Scarab, the cruiser belonging to the Prophet of Regret prepares to make a slipspace jump from just above the surface of the Earth. The Master Chief and Sergeant Johnson get aboard In Amber Clad just in time for the ship to propel itself into the slipspace wake of Regret's ship, following it. The ship's jump lays waste to New Mombassa.

Editor's Note: As many fans have already pointed out, Cortana notes in First Strike that she is able to use the slipspace engines and plasma weapons more accurately and efficiently than the Covenant themselves do, an indication of their continual misunderstandings of Forerunner legacies, whether technological or otherwise. That Regret's ship is able to execute this slipspace jump indicates that her knowledge has been assimilated by the Covenant, perhaps by the AI on the Ascendant Justice.

The Arbiter / The Oracle
The disgraced Elite is brought before two of the Hierarchs, Truth and Mercy (the third, Regret, appears as a hologram, as he does many times throughout the game) and told that he will not be executed outright, but will serve in a special position as The Arbiter; a role that is always suicidal and has been pivotal in many parts of Covenant history. To this end he receives new armor that will distinguish him from the rest of the Covenant.

The story here makes its first perspective switch, and players finally see that they are actually going to guide the actions of The Arbiter during gameplay. The first mission is to pursue an Elite called the Heretic, who the Hierarchs say is telling lies to the Covenant. He is hiding on a Forerunner station in the atmosphere of Threshold, the gas giant near the remains of Halo installation 04. The Heretic has supporters among various Covenant castes, including Elites and Grunts, which are distinguished from your own forces by differences in costume and coloration.

Throughout the level the Heretic taunts you with the statement that the Prophets are lying about the Great Journey. You pursue him throughout the station, including an interlude where he flees on a Banshee and you must give chase with the support of a Phantom and its three powerful plasma guns. Finally he ensconces himself behind a plasma shield as a powerful storm threatens to destroy the station.

In the second half we become aware of the fact that the Flood are loose on the station, and were possibly stored there or escaped there from Halo 04.

Editor's Note: Joe Staten on the LE DVD notes that this station apparently predates the Halo structures and was where Forerunners first "encountered" the Flood.

In an act of desperation, the Spec Ops Elite leader accompanying you gives his plasma sword to the Arbiter so you to cut the three cables that hold the station in place.

When you finally catch up with the Heretic in a hangar, he at first seems to try and persuade you to his cause, revealing that 343 Guilty Spark is with him, and again accusing the Hierarchs of lying without saying precisely what they have lied about. Then the Heretic fires on you and releases several holograms of himself. When you defeat him, Guilty Spark expresses regret because the Heretic's education had given him satisfaction. The Brute, Tartarus, arrives, takes 343 Guilty Spark prisoner, and the three of you leave the station before the storm destroys it.

Editor's Note: That the Heretic's efforts to convince you to believe him are half-hearted make the entire encounter seem a bit symbolic; as many players no doubt already suspect that he is, in fact, right about the Prophets, which is seemingly confirmed by 343 Guilty Spark, you may find yourself wishing that you had the option to instead join with him and turn on Tartarus; the kind of option offered players of games like Deus Ex. The fight against the Heretic and his holographic cronies is the first of Halo 2's three "boss battles" which feature enemies that must be fought with different tactics than other units.

Delta Halo / Regret
Switching back to the Master Chief, In Amber Clad exits slipspace behind Regret's cruiser to find they've arrived at another Halo installation. Sergeant Johnson is ordered to take his troops to the surface in Pelican dropships, while the Master Chief and a group of Helljumper ODSTs perform a hard-drop in pods. You link up with other marine forces and push your way through Covenant resistance, fighting among ancient-looking, vine-ridden ruins, eventually passing over a lake using two gondolas and under it through two underwater elevators, and arrive at a structure where the Prophet of Regret is delivering his sermon. Arriving at the structure, you look overhead to see an enormous Covenant fleet arrive from slipspace, including the massive Covenant capital, High Charity. After defeating the Prophet of Regret, the fleet turns its weapons on the installation, vaporizing it. You escape into the water and are captured by the tentacles of the giant plant-like character, Gravemind.

Editor's Note: Regret has been apologizing for his premature attack on Earth; I myself think it likely that he was targeted for elimination by the other Hierarchs anyway, and that even if the Master Chief had not killed Regret, Mercy and Truth would have ordered the fleet to vaporize him anyway. The fight with Regret is one of Halo's three "boss battles" in which you encounter enemies that must be fought in a particular way.

Sacred Icon / Quarantine Zone
On High Charity, the death of the Prophet of Regret at the hands of the Master Chief is used as justification for replacing the Honor Guard of Elites that protect the Prophets with Brutes. Both the Arbiter and the Spec Ops leader object to no avail, but the Elites are seriously disgruntled (no pun intended) and the first hints of the Covenant breaking apart along racial lines can be seen.

Tartarus drops the Arbiter off at a structure on Installation 05 called the Wall, a barrier guarding the Library. A protective shield prevents entry to the area; your first task is to deactivate this shield. The area is full of piston-like structures, some of which must be activated to gain access to other levels. The Wall is defended by Sentinels similar to those found on Halo 04, although some have more powerful beam weapons, and Enforcers, much larger foes that have shields and fire two weapons; one similar to the Needler and the other similar to the rocket launcher. In behavior and appearance they resemble the armored Pfhor vehicles called Juggernaughts from the Marathon series.

When you finally arrive inside Halo 05's Library, you find that Sergeant Johnson and Miranda Keyes have arrived ahead of you. Tartarus seizes them and the Index and throws you off a precipice.

Editor's Note: This pair of levels essentially replace The Library from the first game, and feature a much wider selection of environments, weapons, and vehicles in your encounters with the Flood. While much prettier to look at, though, it is still basically fighting zombies in the dark.

Gravemind
You awaken in the grip of Gravemind, who now has both the Arbiter and the Master Chief in his tentacles. Gravemind appears like nothing so much as the plant from outer space, Audrey II, in Little Shop of Horrors. He makes some cursory character judgments of the two, to which the Arbiter objects. There with Gravemind (or rather a part of him, depending) are the Prophet of Regret and 2401 Penitent Tangent, the Monitor of Installation 05. Regret and PT trade barbs, as Regret wants to finish his sermon. He claims that the Great Journey cannot take place until he does. PT disagrees, saying that Installation 05 has a service record that includes many simulated-- and one actual-- firing, and is ready to be operated. Regret accuses PT of having no knowledge of the Great Journey, and PT accuses Regret of ignoring basic protocols for the containment of the Flood. Gravemind interjects that the Great Journey and containment (the firing of the Halo) are the same, and teleports the Arbiter and the Master Chief to two places he thinks the Index might be in order to prevent the installation from being activated.

Editor's Note: Cortana's input is, remarkably, almost entirely missing from this exchange, as the only words she utters are "what is that?" Within the context of the game it is not made clear what the relationship is between the Flood infection, carrier and combat forms and Gravemind, if any. His name, as well as his absorption of Regret, seems to indicate that his nature is somehow related to preserving the mind and memories of dead individuals or perhaps even species, and in that sense, his ability to animate otherwise dead tissue might form some kind of connection to the Flood. Whether he directs the actions of individual Flood combat forms is unclear. That both the Chief and the Arbiter accept orders from their new companion is also quite strange, especially given that the Arbiter in particular seems suspicious of him.

The Master Chief is teleported into a room aboard High Charity where the prophets of Truth and Mercy are broadcasting the triumphant recovery of the Index and the impending Great Journey to the Covenant; with limited weapons, no way out of the room, and several waves of incoming Brutes and Grunts, the scenario is more than slightly reminiscent of the gravity lift room in the "Into the Belly of the Beast" chapter of Truth & Reconciliation in Halo 1. Throughout this level, Covenant discipline is breaking down; the Elites and Grunts are on one side, and Brutes, Jackals and Drones are on the other. However, this helps you very little, as all sides will attack the Chief if they get a chance.

Cortana asks to be dropped off into High Charity's systems, and for the rest of the game she assists you at various intervals, appearing on hologram generators throughout the city.

Pursuing the two Prophets with the Index throughout the city, when you arrive Truth and Tartarus has escaped on a Phantom with the Index, and Mercy has been attacked by a Flood infection form and left for dead, while Pelican dropships piloted by Flood begin raining down all over High Charity.

Editor's Note: The timing here is interesting, in that just at the moment where it is clear that the Chief has failed to secure the Index, Flood attack the city. It is possible that Gravemind is in control of Flood forces, and having deemed the MC's mission to be a failure, sees no reason to restrain his minions from attacking him. Or it could simply be coincidence.

Uprising
The Arbiter is teleported to the surface of Halo 05, in a forest environment similar to the Delta Halo / Regret level pair. Your task is, supposedly, to look for the Index, but this isn't mentioned in the objective texts at all, that instruct you to take revenge on the "Brute traitors"; a pejorative that seems unfair as the Brutes are following the Prophets' orders (however misguided) and it is, in fact, the Elites that are rebelling.

High Charity
In what is easily the most frustrating twist of the whole game, after arriving on the platform to find Mercy being sucked on by an infection form and hearing that Truth is headed "to Earth, to finish what we started" (presumably the Great Journey) In Amber Clad, apparently piloted by Flood, crashes into High Charity, and all over the city Pelicans carrying Flood start to appear.

Cortana orders you to head back through High Charity, now swarming with Flood as well as with Covenant civil war. Thankfully, the level is short. As it ends, Truth has arrived at the Forerunner spacecraft that forms the core and power source of the City, and is disengaging it to begin his journey to Earth. The Chief stows himself aboard, but Cortana stays behind on High Charity, saying that their failsafe plan-- the destruction of Halo 05 using the engines of In Amber Clad-- should not be executed remotely. Master Chief starts to promise to return for her once he has dealt with Truth, and Cortana urges him not to make promises he can't keep. The Master Chief then stows aboard the Forerunner craft.

Editor's Note: How Cortana intends to use In Amber Clad isn't entirely clear, as it had apparently crashed on the surface of High Charity, not Halo 05; perhaps they are close enough that the explosion would destroy Halo was well. In addition, that the center of the city is a Forerunner ship that powers it is not clear until the end; so at any moment before that they might have feared that High Charity would exit the area via slipspace, bringing In Amber Clad out of range of Halo 05 and making its destruction meaningless. Also, as she is not actually on board the ship, it seems that any detonation would, by definition, be "remote"; this has led some fans to speculate that she has another motive for remaining in the Covenant system, perhaps related to the "resistance" she vaguely mentions encountering during the level.

The Great Journey
As the Arbiter you arrive outside the Control Room structure of Halo 05 and greet the Spec Ops commander once again, this time at the controls of a Wraith tank. Tartarus and Commander Keyes are inside, and he intends to activate the ring. Using a combination of vehicles, including Wraiths and Banshees and (if you so choose, hijacked ghosts) you fight your way to a Scarab, which is then piloted by Sergeant Johnson, who rather inexplicably is open to helping you despite having apparently gotten no explanation of the current situation. He uses the Scarab to force an entry to the control room, where you land a Banshee and proceed inside to the final encounter with the Brute, Tartarus, which is Halo 2's third and final "boss battle" and the only one in which you get assistance from other units: in this case, Sergeant Johnson.

Tartarus is forcing Miranda Keyes to reunite the Index with the Core of Halo 05 to trigger the installation to fire. After you defeat Tartarus, she recovers the Index, and 343 Guilty Spark, brought there by Tartarus, explains that the interruption of installation 05's firing sequence has triggered a message to the remaining Halo installations, which will be put into a "standby" mode, in which they can be ordered to fire from a location referred to as The Ark.

Editor's Note: That Tartarus takes Keyes as well as the Index into the Control Room seems to indicate that the Covenant are now aware, if they perhaps were not earlier, of the essential role of humans, or Reclaimers, in the process of activating the Halo; something which is most likely offensive to them dogmatically, and perhaps the source of Mercy's cryptic remark upon his death that "this time, none of you will be left behind."

Truth arrives at Earth aboard the Forerunner ship, and just as Lord Hood is about to order it fired upon (there is still fighting going on between human and Covenant forces on Earth at this time) the Master Chief signals him. Hood inquires about what the Chief is doing aboard the ship, and he replies "Sir.. finishing this fight."

Editor's Note: Then the credits roll, a cliffhanger ending (of sorts) that put many fans into paroxysms of anger and disappointment, especially those who had expected a large part of the game's action to occur on Earth, countering a massive Covenant invasion and instead got a tourist's trip through the galaxy and a selection of encounters and environments that, while more detailed, were not fundamentally different from the those of Halo 1.

After the credits, a final cutscene plays in which Gravemind addresses a holographic image of Cortana, and he says to her, "Now I will ask, and you will answer." She responds "shoot" to indicate her willingness to listen to his questions, and the scene fades out.

Editor's Note: This final bit of cutscene falls far short of the "betrayal" of humanity by Cortana that some have made it out to be; I take it more as an indication that even so far, what has been revealed to the human and Covenant sides regarding Halo is not the complete story, and that Gravemind himself may not have at his command all the facts.

Comments

Now that someone has gone to the trouble of spelling it all out for someone as forgetful as myself, here are some questions. Not that you or anyone else should know the definitive answers but who knows?

1. So how did Regret know Delta Halo's location? Is that revealed somehow? Wasn't Halo 04 found sort-of accidently, as per the Halo novels?

2. Do we even know what led up to Regret reaching Earth in the first place? We know he wasn't aware that it was populated with us repulsive humans, but what exactly gave him the coordinates to jump there?

3. Regret leaves Earth... one imagines prematurely because we handed his ass back to him... now he's on Halo 5 trying to do his sermon... why? What is the rational from going to Earth to going to Halo 5? Why not go straight to Halo 5 from wherever they were in the beginning, THEN head to Earth?

4. I forget exactly, but what was the actual spoken explanation (by Cortana, I suppose) as to why the edifice where Regret met his end was vaporized? Where they trying to kill the MC? I know you say that this hints that they didn't care about Regret one way or the other, however if so, why bother vaporizing that place (what is that place anyway? Was the Index there? Not likely, right?) if Regret was already dead? My thinking is that it really means that they want the MC dead, but I don't recall exactly what Cortana said to boost any particular theory.

[quote=Miguel Chavez]
Now that someone has gone to the trouble of spelling it all out for someone as forgetful as myself, here are some questions. Not that you or anyone else should know the definitive answers but who knows?

1. So how did Regret know Delta Halo's location? Is that revealed somehow? Wasn't Halo 04 found sort-of accidently, as per the Halo novels?
[/quote]

We've been discussing this in #hbo a little bit. My own personal theory is that the Prophets search for the Halo rings, as the means to duplicate the Forerunners' Great Journey, is facilitated by a series of artifacts that contain encoded star charts. The one on Reach led to Earth. The one on Earth, buried somewhere in Mombassa, led to Halo 05. That one may or may not either reveal the location of the Ark, or it may have been within the Ark itself.

Originally I thought Regret's ship left Earth because he encountered unexpected resistance; this makes some sense and is corroborated by Cortana. However, that the Covenant bring a bomb on board Cairo Station and leave their main fleet outside the stations' kill zone seems to contradict this.

Also, in the final cutscene, when Master Chief arrives back at Earth with Truth on the Forerunner ship at the heart of High Charity, there is still combat going on, leaving me to believe that only Regret left. If the Covenant intended to withdraw temporarily due to resistance, why did only Regret leave?

In short, I think that the Covenant have two parallel campaigns: find Forerunner artifacts, and eliminate Humanity. I think in some locations, such as Reach, they expected the two to go together and were prepared for this. On Earth, they were not. Regret needed to find the artifact and left as soon as it told him what he wanted to know: the location of another Halo; possibly ANY other Halo. If this artifact he located was, or was in, the "Ark" then perhaps it revealed the location of all the Halos and Regret just chose one, perhaps the closest one.

[quote=Miguel Chavez]
2. Do we even know what led up to Regret reaching Earth in the first place? We know he wasn't aware that it was populated with us repulsive humans, but what exactly gave him the coordinates to jump there?
[/quote]

See as above: I think that either the markings on the artifact on Reach revealed it; or, in the case that they did not have time to examine or decipher it, it is possible that the artifact recovered by the Apocalypso and subsequently activated inadvertently sent a signal that the Covenant were able to trace.

[quote=Miguel Chavez]
3. Regret leaves Earth... one imagines prematurely because we handed his ass back to him... now he's on Halo 5 trying to do his sermon... why? What is the rational from going to Earth to going to Halo 5? Why not go straight to Halo 5 from wherever they were in the beginning, THEN head to Earth?
[/quote]

Perhaps dogma requires the sermon be delivered from a Halo installation itself and from nowhere else. Perhaps they are as yet unaware of the Ark; perhaps only Truth knows about that. I do think that the artifact on Earth revealed the location of installation 05; Truth and Mercy seem to reveal as much to the Arbiter, as they reveal the discovery of 05 to them only after Regret has fled Earth and been killed. It seems that however ill-advised his attack, the Covenant did not know the location of 05 prior to the assault on Earth, otherwise going there would doubtless have been a higher priority than tracking down the Heretic.

[quote=Miguel Chavez]
4. I forget exactly, but what was the actual spoken explanation (by Cortana, I suppose) as to why the edifice where Regret met his end was vaporized? Where they trying to kill the MC? I know you say that this hints that they didn't care about Regret one way or the other, however if so, why bother vaporizing that place (what is that place anyway? Was the Index there? Not likely, right?) if Regret was already dead? My thinking is that it really means that they want the MC dead, but I don't recall exactly what Cortana said to boost any particular theory.

That's all for now, I'm pooped!

- M[/quote]

Ok, in reverse order:

As for why Regret was on that structure-- I have no idea. It seems to be relatively small and unimportant. Again, it may be a dogmatic misunderstanding of whatever the Prophets have manaaged to learn about Halo; perhaps ascribing religious significance to structures and mechanisms that have none. For all we know, that's a water processing plant he's giving a sermon to :)

There is a problem with this, though. In Halo 1, Cortana says the Control Room is located at a "shrine, or temple, if I interpret this correctly" and notes that this seems odd. Supposedly she's getting this info from the map itself-- not from the Covenant battle.net. We'd expect to see the Covenant using religious terms to describe parts of Halo-- but why would the Halo computers themselves do that, especially when we see 2401PT later chiding Regret for using "inaccurate" language?

I don't have a transcript in front of me, but I seem to recall Cortana mentioning that the installation was being targeted by the Covenant fleet as we enter it. I interpreted this to mean that Truth and Mercy were preparing to punish Regret for his premature attack on Earth. That the Chief did so beforehand is merely convenient.

Certainly the Index wasn't there, as it had yet to be recovered from the Library yet, and there's no reason to believe that Indexes (or Codexes, for that matter) are stored anywhere but in Libraries...

"is facilitated by a series of artifacts that contain encoded star charts. The one on Reach led to Earth. The one on Earth, buried somewhere in Mombassa, led to Halo 05. That one may or may not either reveal the location of the Ark, or it may have been within the Ark itself."

That's not quite right - the artifact with the co-ordinates for Halo 04 was found on Cote D'azur in 'The Fall of Reach', and Cortana used the co-ordinates found there to escape to Halo as a calculated blind jump. The artifact on Reach was destroyed at the end of First Strike, without the Covenant getting a look at it. An artifact was found floating in space by the Apocalypso in ILB, and taken to Earth, where it emitted a signal that the Covenant followed to find Earth - the artifact was being held at a facility in New Mombasa, as told in the last few chapters of the ILB story, so the Covenant landed there to try and retrieve it.

It seems that the Prophets already know the location of all the Halos. Truth states in the cutscene where the Brutes take over, that they have known about the rings for ages, but not how to use them. The events of Halo 1, and the discovery of 343GS, educated them in how to use the Halos.

The biggest question is: Why did Regret come to Earth? It seems he followed the Artifact signal to New Mombasa, did not expect it to be the Human homeworld, used tactics learned at Reach to bypass the orbital MAC guns to get to the surface, get the artifact (presumably) and escape to Halo 05, but WHY he needed the artifact, and how the artifacts fit into the storyline, is unclear. Perhaps they hope the artifacts tell how to use the Halos, but on the discovery of 343GS they no longer need to look for answers...

What Regret is doing on Halo 05 is unclear, perhaps he is trying to use his artifact from Earth to power up the Halo?
Mayyybe, the shrine the Regret is at is Halo 05's Silent Cartographer, and Regret is looking up the location of Halo 05's control room.

Cortana says that the Covenant fleet arrives, and is targeting the installation where you and Regret are, but is sending Phantoms to intercept you before you reach Regret. As soon as you kill him, the Phantoms are withdrawn and they blast the installation. This is reiterated by Spec-ops at the beginning of the next cutscene: "If you had not withdrawn our Phantoms, the Demon would have been in our grasp!"

I'm not sure about Cortana's motives for staying on the High Charity either. It's conceivable that she hopes the explosion from the In Amber Clad would take out the High Charity and Halo 05, but it's a bit fishy. Also, why/how is Gravemind on the High Charity at the end?

It seems pretty clear that the Forerunner are actually Humans, and this would mean that the Ark is: Earth. Or on Earth at least. The only place after the activation of the Halos that Human life survived... Hence why Truth leave for Earth at the end.

[quote=]
That's not quite right - the artifact with the co-ordinates for Halo 04 was found on Cote D'azur in 'The Fall of Reach', and Cortana used the co-ordinates found there to escape to Halo as a calculated blind jump. The artifact on Reach was destroyed at the end of First Strike, without the Covenant getting a look at it. An artifact was found floating in space by the Apocalypso in ILB, and taken to Earth, where it emitted a signal that the Covenant followed to find Earth - the artifact was being held at a facility in New Mombasa, as told in the last few chapters of the ILB story, so the Covenant landed there to try and retrieve it.[/quote]

Are you sure about that? It was my understanding that the artifact was being held at Chawla Base in Boston, and that following the final events of that story, one of the characters was sent to New Mombassa. But I don't remember hearing or reading that the artifact itself was moved. However, perhaps I missed a late revelation there.

As far as Halo 04-- I didn't go so far back as to how the Covenant or Cortana knew about Halo, mainly because I am trying, insofar as possible, to use the games themselves as source material and consider the novels only supplementary. In most cases, the additional information isn't essential. When there's something extra in the novels or in ILB that is backed up solidly by the games, I do try to include it-- but a lot of those materials are just that-- extra, and in some cases there are as-yet-unresolved conflicts between ILB, the novels, and Halo 2.

[quote=]
It seems that the Prophets already know the location of all the Halos. Truth states in the cutscene where the Brutes take over, that they have known about the rings for ages, but not how to use them. The events of Halo 1, and the discovery of 343GS, educated them in how to use the Halos.[/quote]

They have known that they existed, but not where. 04 was apparently the first one they'd actually found-- hence their questioning the Arbiter about whether or not he was dumbstruck. Later, after 05 is located, Truth mentions their faith that "other rings would be found"-- so apparently they did not know the location. If they had, it would have made sense to guard them to prevent events like the destruction of 04.

[quote=]
The biggest question is: Why did Regret come to Earth? It seems he followed the Artifact signal to New Mombasa, did not expect it to be the Human homeworld, used tactics learned at Reach to bypass the orbital MAC guns to get to the surface, get the artifact (presumably) and escape to Halo 05, but WHY he needed the artifact, and how the artifacts fit into the storyline, is unclear. Perhaps they hope the artifacts tell how to use the Halos, but on the discovery of 343GS they no longer need to look for answers...[/quote]

I'm fairly certain that, regardless of whether it was the ILB artifact or another, Regret came to Earth to find the location of another Halo, which he did. The problem for me comes is that if Regret got the location off the Apocalypso's artifact, then it wasn't supposed to be on Earth. Meaning we're supposed to believe that by sheer coincidence, the Covenant arrive on Earth and then have to return there; and that brings up the question of when and how the Covenant move from believing Earth to have no significance to needing to begin the Great Journey there. However, again, it's a debate that is unnecessary for most who only play the game and haven't delved into ILB or the novels; there are so many different ways that the Covenant could have found out the location of Earth that which one might not end up being that significant.

[quote=]
What Regret is doing on Halo 05 is unclear, perhaps he is trying to use his artifact from Earth to power up the Halo?
Mayyybe, the shrine the Regret is at is Halo 05's Silent Cartographer, and Regret is looking up the location of Halo 05's control room.
[/quote]

Possibly. Perhaps he just thinks that it really is necessary for him to give a speech before Halo will work; it seems that he, even more than the other Hierarchs, really treat the Halo artifact as a religious symbol rather than a mechanism.

[quote=]
Cortana says that the Covenant fleet arrives, and is targeting the installation where you and Regret are, but is sending Phantoms to intercept you before you reach Regret. As soon as you kill him, the Phantoms are withdrawn and they blast the installation. This is reiterated by Spec-ops at the beginning of the next cutscene: "If you had not withdrawn our Phantoms, the Demon would have been in our grasp!"
[/quote]

Ahh, very good catch-- I did not connect those two phrases the first time. I guess that's it for my theory about Regret being assassinated by Truth and Mercy, then :)

[quote=]

I'm not sure about Cortana's motives for staying on the High Charity either. It's conceivable that she hopes the explosion from the In Amber Clad would take out the High Charity and Halo 05, but it's a bit fishy. Also, why/how is Gravemind on the High Charity at the end?[/quote]

It seems he can use Halo's teleportation system, as 343GS did. Perhaps High Charity was in range. Or perhaps the bits of Flood flesh "growing" on surfaces in the city is him spreading his body and influence through the Flood infection-- something we did not see on 04.

[quote=]
It seems pretty clear that the Forerunner are actually Humans, and this would mean that the Ark is: Earth. Or on Earth at least. The only place after the activation of the Halos that Human life survived... Hence why Truth leave for Earth at the end.[/quote]

I agree that the Ark and Earth are somehow connected; it makes sense on many levels. Although I think the "humans are the Forerunners" theory is now officially dead if we trust Gravemind-- he seems quite clear on stating that the Forerunners are dead and gone.

Just as well, in my opinion-- I always hated that theory; much too cliched. I hope Bungie doesn't go that way.

With regard to Gravemind - it would appear that you're correct that he teleported from Halo to High Charity - he clearly uses that ability to teleport the Arbiter and Master Chief.
The 'Humans are Forerunners' theory? Despite cliches, everything seems to point to this theory - although Guilty Spark seems to indicate on The Library on Halo 1 that the Spartans are possibly closer to Forerunner than humans are. He makes the comparisons between your battle armour to the Forerunners' 'environmental suits'.
Furthermore in the novalisations the general (i forgot what his name was} who strongly dislikes the Spartan project and Doctor Halsey seems to know more about the Spartan project than has so far been revealed. It is also feasible that Halsey herself knows more than shes letting on - hence her taking away Kelly on some secret mission at the end of First Strike. Perhaps humans are inferior biologically to Forerunners and the Spartans (genetically enhanced humans) are essentially some form of Human-Forerunner hybrids? The many Forerunner caverns discovered on human colonised planets seem to hold all kinds of information which may have been used to pioneer the Spartan project.
Evolutionary speaking Forerunners may also just be more highly evolved humans - if you look at Covenant technology, which is basically scavenged from Forerunners, it is highly advanced compared to human ballistic weapons, which the Covenant regard as primative. Say the first firing of Halo which wiped out the Forerunners, than perhaps this marked the beginnings of mankind - basic Forerunner/human cells began to evolve from stratch which eventually became what he know as humanity now. Thus humans compared to Forerunner are inferior and have simply not evolved to the innovative highs of the Forerunner. The human discovery of Forerunner technology and ruins may have allowed humans to imitate Forerunner biology in the form of the Spartans.
This is of course all speculation, but all arrows point to humans having at the very least, some kind of biological connection to the Forerunners.
Also as many of youmay already know, the bible analogies also seems to fit - The flood in the bible (Noah's Ark) was refered to as 'the monument of their (those vanquished in the flood) sins' just as Gravemind referred to himself. If the Flood (and the firing of Halo) wiped out the Forerunner, and the Ark protected certain individuals from it then it is possible that if Earth is the Ark, then surviving Forerunner cells survived to evolve into humans.
Just a few thoughts. but thats what i believe the story line to be anyway.

"is facilitated by a series of artifacts that contain encoded star charts. The one on Reach led to Earth. The one on Earth, buried somewhere in Mombassa, led to Halo 05. That one may or may not either reveal the location of the Ark, or it may have been within the Ark itself."

That's not quite right - the artifact with the co-ordinates for Halo 04 was found on Cote D'azur in 'The Fall of Reach', and Cortana used the co-ordinates found there to escape to Halo as a calculated blind jump. The artifact on Reach was destroyed at the end of First Strike, without the Covenant getting a look at it. An artifact was found floating in space by the Apocalypso in ILB, and taken to Earth, where it emitted a signal that the Covenant followed to find Earth - the artifact was being held at a facility in New Mombasa, as told in the last few chapters of the ILB story, so the Covenant landed there to try and retrieve it.

It seems that the Prophets already know the location of all the Halos. Truth states in the cutscene where the Brutes take over, that they have known about the rings for ages, but not how to use them. The events of Halo 1, and the discovery of 343GS, educated them in how to use the Halos.

The biggest question is: Why did Regret come to Earth? It seems he followed the Artifact signal to New Mombasa, did not expect it to be the Human homeworld, used tactics learned at Reach to bypass the orbital MAC guns to get to the surface, get the artifact (presumably) and escape to Halo 05, but WHY he needed the artifact, and how the artifacts fit into the storyline, is unclear. Perhaps they hope the artifacts tell how to use the Halos, but on the discovery of 343GS they no longer need to look for answers...

What Regret is doing on Halo 05 is unclear, perhaps he is trying to use his artifact from Earth to power up the Halo?
Mayyybe, the shrine the Regret is at is Halo 05's Silent Cartographer, and Regret is looking up the location of Halo 05's control room.

Cortana says that the Covenant fleet arrives, and is targeting the installation where you and Regret are, but is sending Phantoms to intercept you before you reach Regret. As soon as you kill him, the Phantoms are withdrawn and they blast the installation. This is reiterated by Spec-ops at the beginning of the next cutscene: "If you had not withdrawn our Phantoms, the Demon would have been in our grasp!"

I'm not sure about Cortana's motives for staying on the High Charity either. It's conceivable that she hopes the explosion from the In Amber Clad would take out the High Charity and Halo 05, but it's a bit fishy. Also, why/how is Gravemind on the High Charity at the end?

It seems pretty clear that the Forerunner are actually Humans, and this would mean that the Ark is: Earth. Or on Earth at least. The only place after the activation of the Halos that Human life survived... Hence why Truth leave for Earth at the end.

[quote=]"is facilitated by a series of artifacts that contain encoded star charts. The one on Reach led to Earth. The one on Earth, buried somewhere in Mombassa, led to Halo 05. That one may or may not either reveal the location of the Ark, or it may have been within the Ark itself."

That's not quite right - the artifact with the co-ordinates for Halo 04 was found on Cote D'azur in 'The Fall of Reach', and Cortana used the co-ordinates found there to escape to Halo as a calculated blind jump. The artifact on Reach was destroyed at the end of First Strike, without the Covenant getting a look at it. An artifact was found floating in space by the Apocalypso in ILB, and taken to Earth, where it emitted a signal that the Covenant followed to find Earth - the artifact was being held at a facility in New Mombasa, as told in the last few chapters of the ILB story, so the Covenant landed there to try and retrieve it.

It seems that the Prophets already know the location of all the Halos. Truth states in the cutscene where the Brutes take over, that they have known about the rings for ages, but not how to use them. The events of Halo 1, and the discovery of 343GS, educated them in how to use the Halos.

The biggest question is: Why did Regret come to Earth? It seems he followed the Artifact signal to New Mombasa, did not expect it to be the Human homeworld, used tactics learned at Reach to bypass the orbital MAC guns to get to the surface, get the artifact (presumably) and escape to Halo 05, but WHY he needed the artifact, and how the artifacts fit into the storyline, is unclear. Perhaps they hope the artifacts tell how to use the Halos, but on the discovery of 343GS they no longer need to look for answers...

What Regret is doing on Halo 05 is unclear, perhaps he is trying to use his artifact from Earth to power up the Halo?
Mayyybe, the shrine the Regret is at is Halo 05's Silent Cartographer, and Regret is looking up the location of Halo 05's control room.

Cortana says that the Covenant fleet arrives, and is targeting the installation where you and Regret are, but is sending Phantoms to intercept you before you reach Regret. As soon as you kill him, the Phantoms are withdrawn and they blast the installation. This is reiterated by Spec-ops at the beginning of the next cutscene: "If you had not withdrawn our Phantoms, the Demon would have been in our grasp!"

I'm not sure about Cortana's motives for staying on the High Charity either. It's conceivable that she hopes the explosion from the In Amber Clad would take out the High Charity and Halo 05, but it's a bit fishy. Also, why/how is Gravemind on the High Charity at the end?

It seems pretty clear that the Forerunner are actually Humans, and this would mean that the Ark is: Earth. Or on Earth at least. The only place after the activation of the Halos that Human life survived... Hence why Truth leave for Earth at the end.

NiceMissMayonnaise[/quote]

Your overthinking a couple things, regret was on 05 to give a "sermon", now why would that have to be anything besides simpyl a sermon to his followers about the forecoming of the rgeat journey? that's probabaly what it was.

And the prophets (and the rest of the covies I assume) always know about the halos, I mean come on if you were the forerunner wouldn't you have left some sort of evidence to the halos existance? the great journey could have easily be misread as what the prophets claim it is instead of total annihilation (they also mentioned that the forerunners took the journey before them, thus they found records of the first firing) or they could know it killed him but thought it sent their souls on the journey or whatever. Which is why the whole point of their religion has been the great journey. They didn't know the locations of the halos for which they did not have artifacts for, so that is why they went to earth, but they expected to find forerunner ruins not a human home planet.

[quote=]The Gravemind uses In Amber Clad to get into High Charity.[/quote]

Possibly-- although we'd have to wonder why we don't see it. Hasn't IAC crashlanded on 05? Flood combat forms are delivered to High Charity by Pelicans, but I don't recall IAC itself arriving at High Charity.

I think you even contradicted yourself (possibly in a later post than this) because you mentioned it being rather far from Halo 05 to destroy it. Either way, I'm too critical about Halo 2 to spare some of that and be critical about posts like I used to be :-). One of the last MC levels.. you look up and you see a big burning reddish thing where the Pelicans seem to originate with the flood forms on High Charity... thats IAC.
---Wanted9867---

[quote=Wanted9867]I think you even contradicted yourself (possibly in a later post than this) because you mentioned it being rather far from Halo 05 to destroy it. Either way, I'm too critical about Halo 2 to spare some of that and be critical about posts like I used to be :-). One of the last MC levels.. you look up and you see a big burning reddish thing where the Pelicans seem to originate with the flood forms on High Charity... thats IAC.
---Wanted9867---[/quote]

Yes, I did. I went back and watched those cutscenes again and corrected the summary. IAC apparently crashes on 05, but then is seen later to crash on High Charity, and Cortana mentions it. So I think the assumption is that the Flood repaired it. Whether or not Gravemind was on board is another question, though-- but it certainly seems possible and perhaps even likely.

1.The Prophets had a map,in the form of "prophecies",that would allow them to find the Installations.They talked about this in the movie where the Brutes took over as HOnor Gaurds.
2.The Covenant knew Earth was our homeworld.So,they want to exterminate us by cutting out our heart before advancing on the rest of the body,so to speak.
3.In the level Metropolis,when you meet the first Covenant checkpoint,Cortana says something about the Covenant not expecting that the Master Chief would be there.So,Regret probably thought to exterminate the only real obstacle to the Great Journey with little losses.BUT...with the Master Chief,Regret and the Covenant panicked,because Master Chief destroyed Installation 04.So Regret ran to Installation 05,where the Covenant was gathering to start the Great Journey,hoping that the might of High Charity would kill the Master Chief.He hadn't anticipated that the Chief would be on Earth,nor did he think that the Chief would even TRY to com close to his Carrier.That's why he didn't go to Installation 05 first.
4.I think it was vaporized because;1,it was tainted by human footsteps;and 2,they were punishing Regret and his bodygaurds for their failure.
Probable Reasons
1.The game is called HALO 2.So they needed a HALO ring.
2.In 'First Strike',the Covenant new where Earth was and were going to destroy it.So,Regret had to go there to advance the story.
3.Everyone wanted to see Earth levels in Halo 2,so the designers obliged.
4.It looked nice in the movie.

"That Regret's ship is able to execute this slipspace jump indicates that her knowledge has been assimilated by the Covenant"

This is detailed in First Strike: The Covenant AI on the Ascendant Justice manages to sneak up on Cortana and distract her long enough to send a burst transmission to the Covenant detailing advanced, in-atmosphere slipspace calculations, but fortunately not the data on how to improve the efficiency of their Plasma weaponry.

[quote=]"That Regret's ship is able to execute this slipspace jump indicates that her knowledge has been assimilated by the Covenant"

This is detailed in First Strike: The Covenant AI on the Ascendant Justice manages to sneak up on Cortana and distract her long enough to send a burst transmission to the Covenant detailing advanced, in-atmosphere slipspace calculations, but fortunately not the data on how to improve the efficiency of their Plasma weaponry.[/quote]

Actually if I remember she only hopes it doesn't include the weaponry info. But as I didn't want to just tell people "go read First Strike" I have attempted to incorporate as much of the background given by the novels, but back it up with support from the games, since I think the vast majority of fans probably have only the games, and not have not necessarily read the novels or the ILB fiction.

this summary left out what i thought was the best thing about halo 2.
early humans/earthlings were the forerunners and the ark is either the earth or a ship that is on earth which the humans used to escape the flood. you guys follow me?????
earth, flood, ark

Yup. I left that out because I don't believe that theory. In fact, I downright hate that theory.

Besides, with Gravemind saying the Forerunners are gone, I think that idea is dead anyway. Reclaimers (humans) have a special role to play in the Forerunners' plans, apparently, but they are not Forerunners themselves, IMHO.

Ever noticed that when Gravemind closes his mouth the head looks JUST like the Mc's helmet! The mouth or whatever is his little visor and the 'lips' as it were, would be the little wind deflector he has over his visor.
---Wanted9867---

Whether Cortana is Rampant or not depends on how much weight you give to the novels and the ILB fiction.

My own personal opinion was originally that the concept embodied in the word "rampancy" as taken from the Marathon series did not technically apply to the Haloverse, and I did not actually expect to see it used.

In fact, to date the word "Rampancy" only occurs in the Halo games in one place, and it is not related to the story.

The word does not appear in the any of the three Halo novelizations to date.

The word does appear in the ILB fiction, and is used to describe what happens to smart AIs who "overthink" themselves as a result of reaching seven years of age. This is what is happening to Durga/Yasmine, and what we might guess, according to evidence in the novels, either is happening or will shortly happen to Cortana.

But in any case, I agree-- I don't think her conversing with Gravemind is a betrayal-- no more than the Arbiter and Master Chief stopping 05 from firing was a betrayal, even though that does obviously benefit Gravemind.

Is that one place where Rampant comes in when you kill Keyes on the first level of the first Halo. I think she mentions something about "The chief's gone rampant". ha, just some useless lines they put in there that I remember!
---Wanted9867---

I think,maybe Cortana,filled with the Forerunner data,might be working with Gravemind so that she can get parts to build herself a a cybernetic body,with a human-based brain that will allow her to place her "conciousness" into the body and perform calculations in the High Charity's mainframe.She will then escape High Charity,transmit her protocols into the Installation 05's computer,or 3 43 Guilty sparks computer,and remotely detonate High Charity in Slipspace;thus destroying the Flood menace and making her effectivley immortal.I mean,if 343 Guilty Spark is still functional after so many Millenia,then Cortana could delete 343 Guilty Spark and take over it's body.BUT,she uses the shell to perform standard AI duties;while her artificial body will house her "conciousness".

To be fair i cant imagine the next game to start with a 3 way war like this.
What if... you take into account that In Amber Clad and the rest of you (Cortana, Master Chief etc) lost radio contact with Lord Hood and the rest of the Earth side forces once they slipjumped towards Halo 5, perhaps the Covenant fighting near/on Earth lost contact with High Charity and its fleet when it jumped towards Halo 5 too. If so then the Covenant by Earth will not know of the Betrayal of the Elites. Who knows, butmaybe the next mission for the Arbiter is to warn the rest of his brothers of the trecherous Prophet.

My belief is that in the next halo installment we will eventually see an alliance between the elites and the humains since i believe that the elites are more concerned with honor rather then world domination

Actually, Joe Staten says in the Limited Edition DVD that the station is older than the Halos; that this was the place where the Forerunners first encountered the Flood before the Halos were constructed. It may be suspended from the wreckage of 04 now, but clearly that wasn't always the case.

During the boss-battle with the Heretic, Sparky gives essentially the same run-down that Joe did. Of course, we're usually a little too busy to stop and take notes at that point...

I don't think that the station is moored to Halo's wreckage; if so it'd be falling uncontrollably at the start of the level, instead of only after you cut the cable, and it'd mean that Threshold's rotation (it's "day") was the same length as Halo's orbit. That'd be rather too much coincidence, since we're expressly told that Halo is in Threshold's Lagrange point with Basis.

I think that the structure we see when descending to the station is a different one that predates Halo 04's construction.

[quote=]The station is suspended from halo 04 wreakage if you look up, thus it is part of the installation, and thats why it has flood on it.[/quote]

if the station was part of Halo 04 wouldnt it have simply fallen into the planets atmosphere and disintegrated .. the platform above it seems to be some sort of seperate orbital facility.. perhaps a stand alone research station. as the way the station is designed relies on a gravity... it having that long cable suspending it would be pointless in space where installation 04 was placed.. it is more likely that the station was built apart and was never a component of 04

this may seem a bit far fetched and all but this is my theory. gravemind doesnt understand why the humans and covenant are fighting and why the humans are trying to destrroy their own creations (i think the humans are the forerunners) and so cortanna is going to explain (gravemind can't hear everything going on away from delta halo) and possiblt JUST POSSIBLY since grave mind is like the flood leader and he has intelegence he will comand the flood to HELP THE HUMANS, GRUNTS, HUNTERS, AND ELETES AND ONLY TAKE OVER OR EAT THE JACKALS, BRUTES, DRONES, AND PROPHETS. in other words it'll be the flood, humans, eletes, grunds and hunters agains the remains of the covenant. and by the way the book first strike states that the coordinates of earth were known for as long as the covenant were formed (they were printed on the walls of the one covenent flagship mc captured while escapeing halo in the book) and no artifacts let them there. EARTH IS THE ARK!!!!

Actually, that's about the only part of this theory that probably is true. We know that Truth is on his way to Earth to "finish what we started" as Mercy says.

343GS tells the Arbiter that the only other location the Halos can be fired from is The Ark.

If what Truth is trying to "finish" is the beginning of the Great Journey (activating the Halos) then he has to do it at The Ark. We already know he is going to Earth. So either Earth *is* the Ark, or the Ark is somewhere on Earth or nearby it. It's the only logical conclusion.

Of course, he could be just stopping in for some fries and a Coke on Earth before heading out to the Ark at a completely different location. But somehow, I doubt it.

Alright 1) He might be heading to earth to finish up Regret's problems and eliminate us. 2) He may be going to earth to kill all of us so we don't get taken on the holy Great Journey. 3) He may be coming to earth because the earth is the Ark.
Who knows, since this game was so terribly incomplete we'll have to wait till either Halo 2.5 or sadly wait another 4 years (or we better say about another 8, so it'll be a somewhat decent game) for Halo 3.
---Wanted9867---

Having played Halo 2 to its conclusion and getting the gist of the story thus far, I have drawn the following conclusions, most of which will be bourne out in Halo 3;

1. EARTH IS THE ARK
It seemed to me that at the point when Regret met his much deserved end at the hands of the MC, the Covenent decided to destroy his temple. Ignoring speculation that the fleet was sent to destroy Regret anyway (a patent misconception, as we witnessed the public humiliation, torture, and defrocking of the commander of the defeated Covenant forces), it would be too good a political plum for the heirarchy of prophets to pass up...scapegoating one of their own in the midst of a civil war. An old story really. Regret was called on the air for jumping the gun on the Earth attack, but lets examine where that preemptive strike more closely. It occurred near a site where the first documented oldest proof (thus far) of early human existence--the appriximate area of the Nile source in the continent of Africa. Covenant forces seemed to be rerouted to earth despite being turned back by UNSC forces in the city, and fled like a bat out of hell after the MC turned the Scarab into shrapnel, and making the C eat their own bomb at the end of Cairo. The Chief in promising Cortana, indicated to the Admiral that he intended to finish the fight there (paraphrasing the MC).

2. GRAVEMIND
The obvious agenda for sending MC and the Arbiter on their respective missions is self-preservation. Turn the key and its mutually assured destruction of everything (refer to Cortana, 343, and the monitor of installation 5 as well--penitent tangent).

What G has in mind is a version of the old American "Manifest Destiny", but in this case, he wants to turn all the sentient species into Flood. Multiple genocides, rather than flood as a ruling class. We hae seen that the flood have operated UNSC ships as well as weapons, and they were attempting to repair the Pillar of Autumn in the first Halo.

3. Wither the Covenant???
Unlike my first two conclusions, this third is a bit more hazy, but i'm putting it into print, so I can be one of the first I-told-you-so'ers when Halo 3 hits the bricks and leaves the labs.

A. TRUTH OUT...ARBITER IN
When the MC and human company make mincemeat of the Covenant fleet (again!!!), and the flood is all dried up, Truth will meet with a little "accident" as a result of his betrayal of his people, and the subject species at the hands of the Arbiter. Method of execution will be similar to the MC's dispatching of Regret--Mr. A's gonna jump on that prophetcycle of Truth's and bash Truth's brains in. As Mr. T, as Clubber Lang (or the flood in Halo 2) would say in reference to the first Rocky III fight, I predict "Pain!!!"

The duped Covenant rank and file will at least reinstate Arbiter and at most will make him the head of a NEW Covenant council of Elites.

4. THE TRILOGY ENDS
When the battle for earth is decisively won by MC and co., it will be while the prophet regime is held together by Truth and his brutes/bugs/jackals. This loss will be comparable to the Communist takeover of Russia during WW I in 1917. The prevalent force then (the Reds) were too weak to continue waging world war, and sued for peace...at a great territorial loss. The loss of Covenent forces fighting their own icons (humans) will hit home and further propel the Elite junta to stop the madness, namely the alliance between the only two leading organic sentients on both sides with any integrity or
sense of honor, balance, and duty--in spite of taking orders from the scatterbrained, disloyal, and flighty leadership of others (namely the MC and Arbiter). MC might just retire and train other spartans...j/k.

5. After Halo 3???
Spinoffs, of course. Look at all the action/ad cop movies that followed up Dirty Harry. Barbies spun off Cabbage Patch dolls, care bears, those goofy mood watches sold by burger king, well you get the idea. Superman preceded Batman, Dick Tracy, and Spiderman. Bingie might get a wild hair and do a Halo 4 as a Reach prequel...lol

in te halo books, the forunners created halos (to destroy the flood) and shield worlds to live in until the blast was over (they would be locked inside for 1000 years)! so earth might be a shield world (THE first shield world) so humans could be forrunners (we just forgot our history over 1000 years)

1) I think there needs to be emphasis in the synopsis that Tartarus was forcing Miranda Keyes to reunite the Index with the Core because only a human could do it. In other words, if they didn't have any hostages in the first place, the index would be useless to them. How the Cov knew about this I dunno.

2) Didn't 343 refer to Keyes as "Redeemer" too? That's a Halo 1 debate we can now put to rest.

3) Was that 343 or was it the other one?

4) Style failure: "Editor's Note Throughout the level the Heretic taunts you with the statement..." is missing italics.

Excellent job, btw. It cleared up a few things for me.

I expect you to have images of the major characters and an interactive map that illustrates where things take place by next week!

Do the covenant come from the same planet, as you are led to believe in Halo 1, or are do they all have their seperate planets, as the Covenant is made up of different species. Grunts after all breathe methane, whereas the rest of the species seem to breathe oxygen, surely the grunts can't be indigenous to the covenant homeworld.

each of the covenant races come from different planets. i do believe that elites and prophets come from the same planet though. i read in a manual or forum that the covenant use high charity as there homeworld for all the races

each of the covenant races come from different planets. i do believe that elites and prophets come from the same planet though. i read in a manual or forum that the covenant use high charity as there homeworld.

Surely the Ark is the last haven of the Forerunners, the last refuge of their race, a shadow of their former glory on some station or forgotten world. Remember though, the Artifact on Reach. Perhaps this is the key to this mysterious relic of a long gone Empire.

One of the big things i noticed right after finishing it, was the similarity in design between the main structure in the middle of New Mombassa and the design of the Forerunner ship.
The forerunners themselves may be dead, but humanity is the long-ancient descendant of the Forerunners, maybe missed by Halo's one firing because we were not sentient yet. (remember Halo only kills life intelligent enough to host Flood) I recall also that 343GS made a comment in the Library about being happy that some Forerunners "survived to reproduce."
What I'm most intrested in is the relationship between Forerunner and Reclaimer. 343GS, nor anyone else referrs to the humans directly as Forerunners, but Reclaimers instead. Perhaps the Forerunners had some concept of what humans would wind up being like (or something) and programmed their moniters to xpect them. Humans have to be pretty directly linked to the Halos and the Flood, and the sentinels (and I wonder if there is some ancient rivalry between the descendants of humans adn the descendants of the Prophets that makes them hate each other so much, but that's just idle curiosity.)
But anyway, do we know at all what the giant pillar in New Mombassa is? It looks like Forerunner design showing through in modified form throuh genetic memory or somthing (who knows)
It would make sense for Gravemind to be the source of genetic information that the Flood assimilates, and possibly destroying it (if that's even possible) could render the Flood incapable of functioning, as they would no longer have a bank of knowledge to fall back on. I presume that the Gravemind is present anywhere the Flood are; that the other forms are extensions of the Gravemind's intellect (he's intelligent enough to trick Cortana {if only once}) He's sat dormant for so long and is onyl now getting out and learning new things, but it explains how quickly a mutant alien zombie with a decentralized nervoius system and the inner consitancy of play-dough could learn firearms and shield adn vehicles so quickly. Heck, darn things are even smart enough to run from the sword by the end. I think i know what was breathing in Halo 1's snow levels... The breathing's still there along with incoherent voices and whispers that I all associated with Gravemind's presence once i saw it. I don't think he physically left Halo05 as much as he is now focusing his attention on the presence he has grown on High Charity. It's only a matter of time before he learns how to use that thing, and the only thing keeping him in one place now is the fact that High Charity's power source, the Forerunner ship, just diengaged.
'Course, if any of those Flood infested Covie ships get to earth...
The way i look at it, Gravemind gives us a way to possibly elminiate the Flood without wiping out all sentient life in the galaxy. I'm foreseeing an eventual final boss perhaps... just lemme take a Scarab to the thing...

[quote=]One of the big things i noticed right after finishing it, was the similarity in design between the main structure in the middle of New Mombassa and the design of the Forerunner ship.[/quote]

Really? I don't see any. At any rate, that structure seems to be vestigial; a space elevator, most likely, that was supposed to play a part in the story, but then ended up not being used but left in the game anyway.

[quote=]The forerunners themselves may be dead, but humanity is the long-ancient descendant of the Forerunners, maybe missed by Halo's one firing because we were not sentient yet. (remember Halo only kills life intelligent enough to host Flood)[/quote]

A distinct possibility, but just trite and xenocentric, so I've been hoping all along that Bungie doesn't go that way. Besides, it seems difficult for me to imagine how sentient life like the Forerunners could have nonsentient descendants that evolve into sentient life later on.

[quote=]I recall also that 343GS made a comment in the Library about being happy that some Forerunners "survived to reproduce."[/quote]

You mean Flood, not Forerunners. The forerunners are, as GS states at the end of Halo 2, quite dead.

[quote=]What I'm most intrested in is the relationship between Forerunner and Reclaimer. 343GS, nor anyone else referrs to the humans directly as Forerunners, but Reclaimers instead.[/quote]

Yup. One might even conclude that this means that humans are NOT Forerunners. There's a concept! One might even conclude that Bungie specifically put in references to Keyes (a human and not a SPARTAN) as a "reclaimer" and also added in the note from GS that the Forerunners are dead, dead, dead to be a way of killing off this "humans are forerunners" speculation for once and for all.

Doesn't seem to have worked, though. A pity.

[quote=]Perhaps the Forerunners had some concept of what humans would wind up being like (or something) and programmed their moniters to xpect them. Humans have to be pretty directly linked to the Halos and the Flood, and the sentinels (and I wonder if there is some ancient rivalry between the descendants of humans adn the descendants of the Prophets that makes them hate each other so much, but that's just idle curiosity.) [/quote]

There is obviously some reason why GS calls human "reclaimers"-- why he expects them to know containment procedures (although the Monitors seem to expect this of everyone) and their roles in the process of containing the Flood. I don't necessarily see why this has to mean a direct descendence, though.

[quote=]But anyway, do we know at all what the giant pillar in New Mombassa is? It looks like Forerunner design showing through in modified form throuh genetic memory or somthing (who knows)[/quote]

That's pretty out there. As I understand, some earlier versions of that level included a space elevator, and I believe one is mentioned within the novels (I will have to go and look again). Any similarity like that, though, is bound to be more the fact that this is a game being made by the same group of people.

[quote=]It would make sense for Gravemind to be the source of genetic information that the Flood assimilates, and possibly destroying it (if that's even possible) could render the Flood incapable of functioning, as they would no longer have a bank of knowledge to fall back on. I presume that the Gravemind is present anywhere the Flood are; that the other forms are extensions of the Gravemind's intellect (he's intelligent enough to trick Cortana {if only once}) [/quote]

We only have Cortana's word that what he did was a trick, and I'm not sure she's that reliable at this point. As for Gravemind, there was no evidence of his presence on Installation 04; but perhaps he can collect sensory data from combat forms even at great distances.

[quote=]He's sat dormant for so long and is onyl now getting out and learning new things, but it explains how quickly a mutant alien zombie with a decentralized nervoius system and the inner consitancy of play-dough could learn firearms and shield adn vehicles so quickly. Heck, darn things are even smart enough to run from the sword by the end. [/quote]

Yes, but it doesn't explain why they are almost indiscriminately violent, though.

[quote=]I think i know what was breathing in Halo 1's snow levels... The breathing's still there along with incoherent voices and whispers that I all associated with Gravemind's presence once i saw it.[/quote]

[quote=]I don't think he physically left Halo05 as much as he is now focusing his attention on the presence he has grown on High Charity. It's only a matter of time before he learns how to use that thing, and the only thing keeping him in one place now is the fact that High Charity's power source, the Forerunner ship, just diengaged. [/quote]

Possibly, but the only reason for IAC itself to have been used in the Flood attack would have been to either escape the system (but they don't use it for that) or to transport a large being or object (like GM himself). If all they wanted to do was transport combat forms to High Charity only Pelicans would have been required. I think it's fairly clear that GM was on the IAC.

[quote=]'Course, if any of those Flood infested Covie ships get to earth...

The way i look at it, Gravemind gives us a way to possibly elminiate the Flood without wiping out all sentient life in the galaxy. I'm foreseeing an eventual final boss perhaps... just lemme take a Scarab to the thing...[/quote]

Again, a possibility... although I hope they don't do that.

My question is really whether or not peaceful coexistence with the Flood is possible, and if not, how humanity could be saved if the Halos had to be fired.

If the Flood could have been defeated by simply destroying Gravemind, I think the Forerunners would have done it; whatever resources they had surely exceeded the Covenant's.

i dont remember clearly in what context Guilty Spark made that comment about some of the Forerunners surviving but i would assume that he made that reference to the Master Chief - Guilty Spark mistook the MC as a Forerunner of sorts. just like he made references to the MC's battle armour, comparing it to 'environmental suits' which were used by the Forerunner.
if this is true, then it would seem that the genetic modifications made on the Spartans to create a super soldier would be Forerunner in origin - someone form the Spartan project (Doctor Halsey perhaps?) either knowingly or unknowingly used Forerunner biology as a basis for the Spartans. thus Spartans are Forerunner, or are human-Forerunner hybrids - the biological link between humanity and the original Forerunners.
Doctor Halsey's mission at the end of First Strike was possibly bought on by her realisation that she unknowingly used Forerunner genetic biology in the Spartan project. her mission? who knows.
but if Guilty Spark is correct - and genuine Forerunners DID survive then perhaps Halsey's mission was to find them and somehow stop the war.

Just to be clear-- nobody ever says that Forerunners survived. In fact, 343GS is quite clear at the end of Halo 2-- the Forerunners set off the Halos and killed themselves as well as all life within 2.5 galactic radii.

so what...no1 else read Ghosts of Onyx??? whatever, anyway in ghosts of onyx we find out that forunners built the halos as well as shield worlds (planets that have hollow centers) so if they had to fire the rings they could stay alive inside the shield worlds (in the book the new spartans and Dr.Halsey retreat into the shield world to escape the covenant). I think 343GS refers to the forerunners that were infected by the flood (again maybe earth is a shield world) so humans could be forerunners.

You need to read the IRIS campaign stuff. It knocks the whole "Humans are Forerunners" right in the head when Forerunner archives say we were a surprise discovery, and the Halo3.com/comic page showed a Human tribal elder of that time watching Forerunner machinery with only the vaguest understanding of what's going on.

I don't dispute the Shield World intent, but from in-game evidence and IRIS evidence it's clear that the Forerunner didn't make it to the shelters.

-- Steve's hoping that, two and a bit days from now, he'll know more about why the Forerunners' plan failed.

I thought the reveal of Forerunners as humans or human ancestors would have been pretty uninteresting. And I've long felt that something went wrong-- that although all life in range "died as planned" there was SUPPOSED to have been a way to escape, that for some reason, the Forerunners did not or could not use.

i was under the impression that 343 was talking about some of the Flood surviving to reproduce. Gravemind also mentions in Halo 2 about how "...or ALL will perish as they did before." And 343 says they "....died...as planned." or something to that effect.

ive made up my own theory on halsey's mission. since the book first strike does not talk much if at all about the flood or forerunners, i believe she's after something entirly different. i u have read first stike, u should remember a encounter in castle base where halsey disovers that a rival in her field has all known data on the spartan II project plus coordinates to an as of yet undisclosed location. my theory is that Halsey believe that the Spartan III project, hinted in the first halo book, is in the unidentified system. i may not be right but i think its a good guess.

very interesting stuff. the fact that halo 04 is intuned with "earth normal gravity" and atmosphere(as said in The Fall of Reach) would support the possibility that the forerunners tried to preserve at least a part of flood edible life. it also hints that the forerunners may be very similar to humans. The connection with the Ark being used to escape the flood provides yet more to this arguement.
What many are missing is the fact that in Halo, in a cutscene that I think leads to the Two Betrayals, 343 says that "the galaxy will be quite devoid of life.....life of suffient biomass to sustain the flood." Is it possible that humans werent at the time of the firing?
Yet another thing: Some think that the Flood were going to create a gravemind out of Keyes in Halo. If so, is it possible that he is doing the same with the Prophet of Mercy? This would explain the presence of a gravemind on Delta Halo AND in High Charity.
As for the pillar of mombassa, u got me. Im thinking a space elevator but why in Africa?? i dunno but yall are some hardcore ppl, and i like it :).

very interesting stuff. the fact that halo 04 is intuned with "earth normal gravity" and atmosphere(as said in The Fall of Reach) would support the possibility that the forerunners tried to preserve at least a part of flood edible life. it also hints that the forerunners may be very similar to humans. The connection with the Ark being used to escape the flood provides yet more to this arguement.
What many are missing is the fact that in Halo, in a cutscene that I think leads to the Two Betrayals, 343 says that "the galaxy will be quite devoid of life.....life of suffient biomass to sustain the flood." Is it possible that humans werent at the time of the firing?
Yet another thing: Some think that the Flood were going to create a gravemind out of Keyes in Halo. If so, is it possible that he is doing the same with the Prophet of Mercy? This would explain the presence of a gravemind on Delta Halo AND in High Charity.
As for the pillar of mombassa, u got me. Im thinking a space elevator but why in Africa?? i dunno but yall are some hardcore ppl, and i like it :).

Noah's Ark was built to save a vestige of humanity from the great Flood. That's a pretty solid connection.
The Ark of the Covenant carried the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written. Not much of a Halo connection there unless somebody starts talking about some book of law written by the Forerunners pretty soon.
----
Rampant for over five years.

[quote=narcogen]Noah's Ark was built to save a vestige of humanity from the great Flood. That's a pretty solid connection.
The Ark of the Covenant carried the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written. Not much of a Halo connection there unless somebody starts talking about some book of law written by the Forerunners pretty soon.
----
Rampant for over five years.[/quote]
Truth seems to have a hidden agenda and is playing all of the Covenant for fools - he knows the truth, to a leseer or higher degree and if Bungie are using the Ark of The Covenant as the analogy for the game then i think Truth may simply be power hungrey and want to eliminate humanity, capture the Ark of The Covenant and rule the world. isnt this particular Ark referred to as the throne of God or something in the Bible?

It's clear that gravemind is a very intelgent, powerful, and dangerous being. What if he is a forerunner that survived the halo fireings assylmated by the flood and some how learned to control them it does explain how he knows so much about halo and everything else oh and i have no evidence to back this up its just a theory but it does make a little sence kinda

If that's true, he'd have to be intelligent, powerful, dangerous-- and crazy. He refers to Forerunners as "they". If he were a Forerunner himself, he'd have said "us" or "we". Unless he's like one of those crazy people who refer to themselves in the third person, Narcogen said.

The only reason Regret found Delta Halo is becase he was running from the UNSC cuz he was getting the **** kicked out of him and did what Captain Keys did in halo 1 he was fleeing and found it by accident. If you look at one of the cut scenes at High Charity Truth says hes greatful that there patients has paid off because they found another halo and the great journey is not over.

At first, we were supposed to believe that Cortana found Halo 04 by accident, during a random jump. But the novels clear that up.

What are the odds of Regret invading Earth only to be surprised that humanity is there, and then flee and find Halo 05 by accident?

Seems quite unlikely to me. It wasn't an invasion, because Regret didn't know that Earth was humanity's homeworld. He was there looking for something else-- most likely an artifact that would lead to the location of another Halo. When he found it, he left.

In Halo: The Fall of Reach, the location of Halo 04 was recorded on some sort of crystal, which the Covenant were after when they landed in Cote d'Azur. Is it possible that a similar 'artifact' which held the location of Delta Halo was stored on Earth by the Forerunner? And if so, could it have been stored in Mombasa, which was the reason why Mombasa was the only place the covenant decided to land?
I got all 3 books for Christmas. They really put the story together.
:-D

apparently it's stated in the novelisation The Flood (which i havent read yet) that Grunts indeed come from their own planet but were basically enslaved by the founding members of the Covenant - these members are said to be the Prophets and the Elites. One of the Prophets touches on this in one of Halo 2's cutscenes, he mentions the Grunt Rebellion and the Taming of the Hunters.

apparently it's stated in the novelisation The Flood (which i havent read yet) that Grunts indeed come from their own planet but were basically enslaved by the founding members of the Covenant - these members are said to be the Prophets and the Elites. One of the Prophets touches on this in one of Halo 2's cutscenes, he mentions the Grunt Rebellion and the Taming of the Hunters.

did anyone notice in the first Halo that sometimes the Hunters bled Flood blood?
when fighting Hunters use the Rifle - as they charge you and reveal their exposed mid-section you just hose it while at the same time strafe around it and continue to hose its back. keep hosing it even if its dead until your clip runs down. usually you'll see several splatters of Flood blood near the body. its happened on Assualt on the Control Room and The Silent Cartographer - before you first encounter the Flood.
the human version of the manual for Halo 2 (non-limited edition) states that the Hunters are made up of several smaller organisms inside the armour. also add the fact that Hunters are the only member of the Covenant who cannot be infected and i think ive got good reason to think im onto something good here.
plus the Hunters seem pretty emotionless and brainless things like the Flood, unlike all the other Covenant races. however they DO side with the Elites eventually at the end, so taking into account the previous Arbiters' Taming of the Hunters campaign, their alliance with the Elites seem to be a form of subordination - so they at least have enough of a brain to be able to choose their allies/masters.

[quote=bleeding pepper]did anyone notice in the first Halo that sometimes the Hunters bled Flood blood?
when fighting Hunters use the Rifle - as they charge you and reveal their exposed mid-section you just hose it while at the same time strafe around it and continue to hose its back. keep hosing it even if its dead until your clip runs down. usually you'll see several splatters of Flood blood near the body. its happened on Assualt on the Control Room and The Silent Cartographer - before you first encounter the Flood.
the human version of the manual for Halo 2 (non-limited edition) states that the Hunters are made up of several smaller organisms inside the armour. also add the fact that Hunters are the only member of the Covenant who cannot be infected and i think ive got good reason to think im onto something good here.
plus the Hunters seem pretty emotionless and brainless things like the Flood, unlike all the other Covenant races. however they DO side with the Elites eventually at the end, so taking into account the previous Arbiters' Taming of the Hunters campaign, their alliance with the Elites seem to be a form of subordination - so they at least have enough of a brain to be able to choose their allies/masters.[/quote]
This is because the hunters have a covie version of Bore's Syndrome (spelled wrong, I think) Sarge also has this disease, cause by high exposure to plasma disharges (the big gun on the hunters arm). Lowered intelligence is also a symptom, but while sarge seems unaffected in that area, the hunters are prime examples.
-Gnomedude

is this stated anywhere like in the novalisations?
even if its true it doesnt explain the Flood blood - its definately not a glitch in the first games programming, its a consistant occurence. though ive yet to try it on the second game seeing as its bloody hard to kill Hunters in that kind of way.

You guys said that you need a machine gun or something to kill the hunters with to see the flood blood?
On the second level (I think it is Outskirts), at the very beginning, after you kill everybody in the coardyard, the hunters come out. When they come out, you have to already be in the machine gun turret on the 2nd floor of the building. Shoot them & see what happens. I killed them like this.
I only saw flood blood in Halo 1.

You guys are all retarded: the Forerunners are the Artificial Intelligences: Guitly and Penitent. Guilty as much as says he is a Forerunner when he says "To have a record of all of our loose time. Human history is it?" in the first Halo. Forerunner = AI.

Sorry, wrong, wrong, and wrong. GS is quite clear at the end of Halo 2, when he is asked what happened to the Forerunners: they are dead, dead, and dead.

GS' use of "our" most likely indicates he was created by the Forerunners, which makes sense, since the Forerunners made the Halo installations as well. GS isn't even allowed to fire a Halo himself, requiring the use of a biological being (Reclaimer) to do so.

There's little reason to believe that GS or PT are Forerunners themselves; they'd likely not be so helpless, as it seems Gravemind has PT pretty much cooped up, and has for quite awhile, and Tartarus is able to subdue GS fairly easily as well.

You're engaging in a slightly less common variation on the most often misinterpreted line in Halo 1. Most conclude from that line that humanity are the Forerunners, but I don't think that's true, either.

quote: To have a record of all of our loose time. Human history is it?
I don't see how that proves anything, frankly. The monitor says that because of all the time he "lost" being locked up in halo for 100 thousand years.

Is it possible that the Forerunners, as they prepared to activate the rings and aware of the fact that their effect would bring about the destruction of all sentient life endeavoured to safe at least some and as Noah did with the Ark in the bible loaded a ship that they knew could survive the rings effect with a variety of lifeforms, including possibly the ancestors of humans, the ship reached earth following the blast that would wipe out life and the animals were set loose, forming the first life on earth. The rings only destroy sentient life correct? So the planet would still be set up to sustain life, having plants etc and so a breathable atmosphere. But Humans according to our science have no only been in existence for several thousand years, and the blast must have occured hunreds of thousands of years ago perhaps it was extremely simple life that the Forerunners saved and it then evolved as we know life did on this planet.
I cant explain the existence of the covenant though as surely they would have been wiped out, unless the planets they originate from exist outside the blast radius of the rings, explaining their need for mobile cities such as High Charity.
I also cant explain why if this is true the Forerunner would not have saved themselves on this super ship, perhaps there were only a few left and the flood had infected the rest and they simply accepted the inevitablility of their situation, there was no room on the ship or they were on the ship but could not adapt to life on earth i dont know.
Regret

assuming that the first firing of Halo wiped out everything but left behind simple cells which evolved into humanity and Covenant (whether or not the Forerunners 'saved' these cells or not), that would mean that Covenant and humanity would have evolved in 100,000 years - which is the length of time GS says his been locked up for (presumably since the first firing of Halo). seeing as im no scientist i wouldnt know if this is possible for humanity to have evolved in what seems to me, as a short space of time. The Fifth Extinction which wiped out dinosaurs occured around 65 million years ago! possibly the cells which survived where more biologically advance, hence it did not have to evolve from stratch.

In Halo: The Fall of Reach, the location of Halo 04 was recorded on some sort of crystal, which the Covenant were after when they landed in Cote d'Azur. Is it possible that a similar 'artifact' which held the location of Delta Halo was stored on Earth by the Forerunner? And if so, could it have been stored in Mombasa, which was the reason why Mombasa was the only place the covenant decided to land?
I got all 3 books for Christmas. They really put the story together.
:-D

I believe an alliance will be made between Elites, grunts, Hunters, and Humans. Such an alliance would be benaficial to both the separatists, who would get backing from the Humans, and the Humans, who would also gain support and power. After all, the Elitesnow know the Prophets lied to them. They may decide the Prophets lied about us too. I must say it will be strange to see Master Chief fighting alongside grunts.

Well, the Elites know that they've been shunned in favor of the Brutes; they know the guard was recommissioned. And, in what I think is the most conspicuously awkward plot revelation in the game, a dying Elite at the start of Uprising tells the Arbiter that the Brutes murdered the Elites on the High Council, a fact he later relays to the Spec Ops commander at the start of the Great Journey.

However, I don't think it's clear at all that even the Arbiter, let alone the other Elites, no longer believes in the Great Journey. He certainly does not seem to believe this when Gravemind tells him, and it's really unclear why all of a sudden he believes this. That level seems to be more about getting revenge on Brutes than anything else.

Sarge, of course, knows that Halo is a weapon and tells the Arbiter this. And the PLAYER-- who of course DOES know the truth-- then controls the Arbiter to stop Halo from firing. It's really unclear to me what, if anything, convinced the Arbiter that Johnson is telling the truth.

It seems to me to be just as reasonable explanation that the Brutes, wanting to get favor in the post-Journey life, envied the Elites' superior position and conspired with the Prophets to take it away. The Covenant itself seems to exist primarily to create a cease-fire in the war between the Prophets and the Elites; perhaps with the Brutes on their side, the Prophets no longer need the protection of the Elites, and they can go on to enjoy their "great journey" without it.

Clearly, either Tartarus does not believe Halo is a weapon, or he believes that he will somehow be protected from it. It all hinges on whether or not you think the Prophets (or at least one of them) actually DOES know the capital-T Truth.

And speaking of that level... another thing has always bothered me. When the Master Chief and Cortana tried to stop Halo 04 from firing, 343 GS turned on them, and tried to kill the Chief.

Contrarily, when Keyes asks 343 GS to stop Halo from firing, GS even offers helpful advice on how to do so, even though 2401 PT is of the opinion that the facility must be activated, leading me to believe that GS would likely reach the same conclusion.

The way i think halo 3 is going to start off is that keys, sarge, and the arbitar are going to leave halo 05 and meet up with a bunch of Elite,grunt, and hunter controled you no the ones who fought over high charity and then there going to take the fleet and go to earth and right before the MAC gun fires Keys is going to give them her ID code and say that the new covie ships are friendly and there going to engage the brutes/phrophet controled ships and right be fore the first shot hits there going to swtich to the master chief on the forerunner ship.

[quote=]You do know that halo 3 will not be released anytime soon and that halo three is not even bungie's next project so don't listen to this fraud because he has absolutely no proof.
ffgggg [/quote]
to be fair, Halo has become such a massive gaming francise that theres bound to be a sequal. besides, considering the ending of Halo 2 it would be criminal not to have a sequal...
methinks you get to play as Johnson and have to retrieve Cortana from High Charity seeing as he cant be infected by the Flood, before heading back to Earth.
and as the Arbiter he has to warn the rest of his brothers about Truth - In Amber Clad lost contact with Lord Hood and Earth after they followed Regret to Halo 05 - i reckon High Charity did too when they jumped to Halo - thus, the Covenant fighting it out with Earth's defenders are not aware of Truth's betrayal of the Elites.
just a thought...makes it more exciting then forming an alliance with the Elites anyway. i still cant forgive them for killing Sergant Gunns...

It would be fantastic to see some massive fleet v fleet action in the cutscenes, or out the window of some stations, or even fleet v fleet v fleet depending on whether the separatists join with the humans or not.

After you kill Tartarus, it goes to outside Delta, and there is a blob right on Halo, perhaps HC couldn't stay afloat and crashed into Halo. And also, what if not the humans are the Forerunner decendents, but the Flood?

"GS refers to the Forerunner as 'his creators' anyway. so unless he's pulling our leg...and he seems to have no reason to do so!"
It is unlikely GS is capable of lying. In HALO1, when Cortana, thankfully, prevents the MC from activating the ring by uniting the Index with the core, Cortana tells the Chief the method in which HALO defeats the flood. Obviously confused, Cortana tells the Chief to ask GS himself....instead of attempting to decieve the Chief, or play the Chief against Cortana, GS simply tells Chief, that yes, the rings wipe out all life in the galaxy.

First i very much dought that Earth is the Arch it self its probly on earth but not earth it self and second the covie got to the tech state thay are at thanks to old forerunner technology thay found. If theres a question at all its how did the flood get a hold of all the pelicans that droped on High Charity the IAC was on high charity already so thay didnt get them from there so where.

you ask where they came from? they came from in amber clad. when you see it fly past you on gravemind the flood are controling it, remember tartaus captured maranda and sargent johnson, but in qurintien zone the very last part of it (on the gandala thingy) if you look you can see it (in amber clad) huvering in the air

Of couses they will you can't leave a cliffhanger like that and just end the seris i mean come on halo is a friggen goldmine i hear reports of a movie being devolped and as for the game i dought thay will stop a halo 3 there probly gonna make halo 4-5

The Juggernauts in Marathon were Pfhor Armored Vehicles, as we learn clearly in Post Naval Trauma. (no offense, Narc)
They were used extensively *against* the Nar, as we learn in M2 (I can't remember which level).
Well, I have to talk about what I know, right? ;-)

You're exactly right. In fact, come to think of it, I'm not sure why it says "Nar" there-- I think I may have been making myself a note to go look up the reference at the Story Page to expound on what Juggers were, but never got around to it.

GS says that the pulse emmited from halo would destroy all sentient life, or life with sufficient biomass to sustain the flood... meaning that animals that weren't big enough for the flood to fit into survived. so, small monkeys and crap like that evolved into humans... or maybe god just made more humans and stuff... and maybe the evolution of humans again took less time than the first one. conditions could've been different, allowing them to adapt and evolve in a lesser amount of time.

In the stratagy guide for Halo 2, it says that the flood has stayed dormant for many years, waiting for prey. If Halo is activated, and all sentient life is destroyed, couldn't the flood become dormant again?

The HALO rings have two functions, the most important is to 'starve' the flood by wiping out all lifeforms in the galaxy that meet certain bio-mass and sentitent requirments, and secondly, to store the flood.
It is interesting to store such a powerful and dangerous species. However, it is clear that at least the secondary purpose to the HALO rings.
During the level where the Arbiter is seeking to kill the Heretic, you take an elevator which, as it descends, it seems to be collecting containers. These containers are transffered on to the elevator...and if you decide to blow them up, you find that little Flood sporelings, or whatever they are called, pop out. Clear proof the rings are designed to contain the flood species.

Yes but as you stated it would kill all life in the galaxy. Plus it would take a little longer for them to go into dorment because they ate the majority of covies on High Charity. And no life would respawn because the forerunners seeded the galaxy before they activated the halos so life would slowly evolve after they commited mass sucide. So as you can see any way you put it turning on the halos would be a bad thing.

It is my opinion that the prophets (or at least truth) have always known what halo was and what was going on, and did the things the way they did just so truth could activate halo without killing himself (I belive that if he activates it from the ark then he won't be killed by it). Next there is gavemind, I believe that he somehow got in contact with cortana on instalation 04 and convinced her to help him from early on. Then there are the humans, who are led by master cheif. I think that they are the decendants of the forerunners, and that they are the ones who will stop truth, I also think that there are other spartans still alive that will show up in halo 3 to help with the fight (because there was never a report that ALL of the spartans had died). Last there are the elites who are now led by The Arbiter, I think that this side will co-exist with the humans and help to stop tuth from activating halo. overall, Truth will die, the halo will not be activated, cortana and gavemind will disappere and the humans and elites will work together to make a new age for them all.

a heard a rumor from a bungi exec that the storyline will end up with the arbitor, keys, and johnson (with left over covies and humans) will take on gravemind on high charity and the master cheif (w/ humans and covie sepertists) will take on truth on earth.

I heard a few rumors, too. Such as Bungie Studios, being part of Microsoft, doesn't really have its own "execs" with the possible exception of studio head Jason Jones, who is much too smart to give out information to people who are going to post it on bulletin boards.

I heard from a friend that reads the halo books and he said that the reason sargeant johnson is still alive is because he stole some plasma grenades from some covenant elites. The plasma grenades messed around with his dna. The flood can only take over your body as long as they can match your DNA so since johnsons dna was screwed up, the flood could not match his. SOOOOOOOOO, he wasn't posessed by the flood.

okay look man either ur friend is stupid or u heard wrong. Sgt. John's dna wasn't freakin screwed up by some frikin plasma grenade.
the reason y he didn't get infected by the flood is becuase he had some type of disease or something ( forgot wat it was called) i should kno cuz i read all 3 books 2... so stop f*&^in up the story... i mean really man a plasma grenade???? screwd up his dna??? WTF!!!!

Johnson dosn't suffer from a disease u fucking retards. he has a unique cancer brought on by plasma radiation emitted by plasma grenades. Before u go blabbing that u know everything because u read a book, u should check in ur book and make sure ur right. Fucking nerds.

[quote=]Johnson dosn't suffer from a disease u fucking retards. he has a unique cancer brought on by plasma radiation emitted by plasma grenades. Before u go blabbing that u know everything because u read a book, u should check in ur book and make sure ur right. Fucking nerds.[/quote]

Since when is cancer not a disease, you moron?

And if you're going to bother to criticize others for not looking stuff up, look it up yourself-- the name of the disease is Boren's Syndrome, named after Brannon Boren.

you both are stupid no0bs. johnson has borens syndrome. a disease of the nervous system caused by exposure to high yield plasma (A.K.A. plasma nades) he captured a crate of them and used them all which caused borens syndrome to develope. his nervous system was so messed up that the flood couldn't force a tap into his mind and thus control him so they just left him alone.to the idiot who wrote "YUP SGT. JOHNSON IS ALIVE": dude, read before you post, no0b. to the idiot who wrote "to the idiot who wrote YUP SGT. JOHNSON IS ALIVE": get the facts right before you flame someone for having the facts wrong, no0b.
Long live the Grunt Empire

the arbiter doesn't know that the pillar of autumn was halo's explosion cause. then what did he think blew up halo? a little bullet or an activation backfire, because the arbiter was cloaked in camoflauge at the control room when 343gs talked to mc, maybe he didn't clean his ears and thought mc's fake activation was real and it back-fired or something, or just couldn't understand 343gs's smartness.

[quote=]the arbiter doesn't know that the pillar of autumn was halo's explosion cause. then what did he think blew up halo? [/quote]

What makes you think he doesn't know? He tells the council that by the time he learned of the "demon's intentions" it was too late. Clearly he did know that Master Chief destroyed Halo by detonating the PoA's engines, but did not find this out in time enough to stop him.

If the first strike was really part of the story-line what happened to the remaining surviving spartans? WIll, Fred, Linda, Kelly and Dr. Hasely? So you can't say what happened in the book actually happens in the actual story-line.

there is going to be a next halo.. if u beat halo 2 on legendary (which is easy for me) pay attention at the credits and it will say 'coming february 8th'. there is maybe gonna come a halo 2.5 for Xbox2. the name is sorta gay.
Posted by
Michael
Discovery school rocks

Dude halo 3 is coming on Xbox 360 i spent the hole night reading about it Xbox 360 is coming late this year and halo 3 i think is coming the year after its nothing but speculation at this point for the halo seris

Bungie, you made an auful, auful mistake!! Having marine suport when fighting the covies is the best part of halo 1 & 2! turning all the human forces on board in amber clad into flood was a really,really bad mistake! if you even put th flood in the next halo, halo 3,(which may I add is a definant on coming out the new xbox 360!) I shall scream my little brain out!!!!!!!!!! which I might as well do now. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
So please eliminate the flood and the arbiter, which was an even worce idea, because, I mean, Who wants to be an alien?

[quote]So please eliminate the flood and the arbiter, which was an even worce idea, because, I mean, Who wants to be an alien?[/quote]come on man. where do you get off? the Arby is the best character in the game, his camo is uber cool, and he has ten times more personality than the chief. the chief follows orders. the Arby actualy has a vendeta against the brutes, hence the "take revenge on the brute traitors" objective. he is a character that people can relate to. BTW I think we should be able to play as a grunt for bonus missions and custom games on XBL.
Long live the Grunt Empire

[quote=r3dneckdude][quote]So please eliminate the flood and the arbiter, which was an even worce idea, because, I mean, Who wants to be an alien?[/quote]come on man. where do you get off? the Arby is the best character in the game, his camo is uber cool, and he has ten times more personality than the chief. the chief follows orders. the Arby actualy has a vendeta against the brutes, hence the "take revenge on the brute traitors" objective. he is a character that people can relate to. BTW I think we should be able to play as a grunt for bonus missions and custom games on XBL.
Long live the Grunt Empire[/quote]

I'm not sure I agree that the Arbiter is the best character-- but I agree that he's more personally involved (usually) in what he's doing than the Chief is, for the same reasons you give.

It will be interesting to see what they do with the Arbiter in the next game. As much as some people don't like playing as him, or playing those levels (mostly against the Flood) I think just as many would be disappointed if he was not a playable character in the next game.

What's next, though-- three playable characters? A level where you play as a Flood combat form?

"Editor's Note: As many fans have already pointed out, Cortana notes in First Strike that she is able to use the slipspace engines and plasma weapons more accurately and efficiently than the Covenant themselves do, an indication of their continual misunderstandings of Forerunner legacies, whether technological or otherwise. That Regret's ship is able to execute this slipspace jump indicates that her knowledge has been assimilated by the Covenant, perhaps by the AI on the Ascendant Justice."

I understand what you mean, but for the benifit of ppl who haven't read the books, perhaps make it clearer that the slipspace calculations that cortana made to jump while in a planets gravity well were broadcast to the Covenant by the Cov-AI. And theres no perhaps about it, the AI did broadcast/leak the calculations, and we know that the covenant took the AI seriosly as the attack the Ascendant Justice as was asked by the covie AI.

Halo 3 will be about the continuation of halo 2 (of course). And the Prophet of Truth. And he has brought his entire Covenate fleet to earth to the Ark which will activate all of the halos at once. Little knowing that the so called ancient forerunner race that have been exinct for thousands of years were actually early humans which were the foreunners. The Covenate only had there technology because they had been finding the left-over technology for many years over ancient building burials on there planet but the ancient humans had died and few survivers that lived lost there memory and there lives over the years and so on. When the foreunners first faced the flood even before there was a Covenate, there last attempt to stop the flood after there last defences fell they activated the ark and all life perised through out the galaxy. But the derange Prophet and the rest of the creatures that stayed with the Covenate (through the Covenate civil war) such as the brutes and jackels, are thinking that the rings are for cleansing the galaxy and sending all deserving life forms will go to the divine beyond. But through the civil war the Elites have realised that the Prophet is making a huge mistake and have sided with humanity on earth and the two races along with the Cheief and the Arbiter are trying to defend the earth and the galaxy.

Not to sound conspirational but some of what you are speaking about sounds remarkably like the the knowledge of an Bungee Studios insider... I agree completley with everything you have said but the first half of your comment gave me the distinct impression that you have eccelent sources.
However, I have not looked much into the actual amount of data on HALO 3 yet So I may be mininterpreting your apparent knowledge. there is a distinct possibility that you have either pulled these conclusions from small clues litterd throughout both games, or there is a Bungee Leak source somewhere out there...
Either way we are both thinking on the same waveleingth.
Kudos to you.

[quote=]One thing I didnt get, in the game it mentions somthing about The covenent heading to Earth to find, and un expectedly running into us, What were they looking for, and why did itm lead them to us?
[/quote]

They were following a trail of Forerunner artifacts, like breadcrumbs, to find the location of another Halo installation. That Regret went to Earth briefly, and then went directly to Delta, indicates that he found an artifact revealing the location of Delta on Earth and then went there.

The Covenant had apparently not realized that Earth was also the human homeworld, and that the location of the artifact on Earth (The Ark) was more significant than just a marker-- hence the need for Truth to reiterate that the Oracle has told them that the Great Journey begins at Earth.

What could Mercy mean by that? Maybe, they encountered the humans( or ancestors) before, but some of the humans escaped, landed on Earth (The Ark could be a ship like high charity) and forgot the Covenant...

I'd like to offer my own thoughts on the relationship between the Forerunner and humanity. I suggest that both developed independently of each other, but there was some definite interaction between the two. Of course we won't know the true nature of their relationship until 2007 but I'll speculate none-the-less.
I propose that the connection is pretty simple. The Forerunner, after combating the Flood for countless centuries, realizes they are unable to defeat their foe in any sort of conventional sense. So they construct the Halo network in the hope of putting a stop to the Flood's relentless advance. The Forerunner accept their fate, but feel guilty for having to sign the death warrant of (at least) all other sentient life within the galaxy. So they look for a species that is sentient but early in evolutionary development in order save it from destruction. They find a species- recently evolved and small in number, (perhaps this species reminds the Forerunner of themselves somehow, at least in terms of physiology and the physical makeup of its home world, making it all the more worthwhile to save). Additionally the Forerunner hope that this species will one day follow in their footsteps and pick up the pieces, so to speak, so they take the steps to make sure their instillations are usable for these reclaimers, furthermore they also notify their mechanical monitors of the composition of this species in order to recognize it and assist it. The Forerunner then builds some sort of ship or structure in order to allow this species to survive the activation of the rings. So the Halos are fired and this chosen species, humanity, emerges from this Ark afterwards and leave it to sink beneath the African sands.

As for the Human/Covenant war:
The Hierarchs of the Covenant, after analyzing data left behind by the Forerunner, are outraged that this relatively primitive species are the chosen ones of the Forerunner and in a jealous rage declare this species an abomination, worthy only of annihilation. Not only that but the Prophet Hierarchs see that this species poses a serious threat to their power structure considering the possible impact of the knowledge of humanity's special relationship to the Forerunner would have if revealed.
Once again I apologize if I'm just echoing something already suggested. As far as I can tell I haven't heard anything that fully matches my own thoughts, but the number of forum posts on these numerous websites makes verifying that close to impossible. So I'm sorry if I wasted your time, Narcogen, reading my longwinded post.
On another note I enjoy your rampant speculations. Itâ€™s nice to see someone take the time to analyze the nuances of these games in mature and logical manner for so many years. Keep it up.

I think your idea about the relationship between the humans and the Forerunners is entirely plausible-- not to mention more aesthetically pleasing than the idea that humans ARE the Forerunners.

I think you may be veering off-track with the Covenant reaction, though. There are lots of things that indicate that while the Covenant resent human interference in the Covenant's quest for their Great Journey, that they do not accord humanity any particular status. There are, however, mixed signals here-- for instance, the fact that humans were never assimilated, nor was any such attempt made.

However, Regret's statement that "no human presence was foretold" on Earth seems to indicate that however important humanity is, the Covenant are not fully aware of this, and thus don't yet have a reason to be outraged.

Having had access to 343GS they could easily find out all they do not know-- if they wish to. However, it seems that when the "oracles" conflict with existing Covenant religious dogma, they prefer the latter to the former.

You're right; my thoughts on the Covenant reaction aren't exactly water tight. Here though I present two scenarios that address the hole in theory: Regret's statement about Earth.

You bring up Regret's statement, "no human presence was foretold." If he were looking for the Ark and my theory were accurate I can't imagine that there wouldn't have been some mention of humanity. It appears though that he may not have been looking for Ark. He does find the coordinates to Delta Halo, perhaps the original information he had nothing to do with the Ark and thus lacked any information concerning humanity. This I know probably isn't all that likely.

But what information did Regret have and how did he come by it? Perhaps Truth and possibly Mercy set him up. Since it seems that Truth has no problem letting his fellow Hierarchs get knocked off. He may have sent Regret there, leaving out certain details, but with full knowledge it was the human home world. I'm assuming though that Regret received his information second hand which is quite a lot to assume.

Also Mercy's statement in the cut scene before High Charity: "...and this time, none of you will be left behind." I'm fully aware that this could have several meanings but it could, if viewed a certain way, relate to my theory. I wouldnâ€™t bet the farm on it though.

[quote=]You're right; my thoughts on the Covenant reaction aren't exactly water tight. Here though I present two scenarios that address the hole in theory: Regret's statement about Earth.

You bring up Regret's statement, "no human presence was foretold." If he were looking for the Ark and my theory were accurate I can't imagine that there wouldn't have been some mention of humanity. It appears though that he may not have been looking for Ark. He does find the coordinates to Delta Halo, perhaps the original information he had nothing to do with the Ark and thus lacked any information concerning humanity. This I know probably isn't all that likely.[/quote]

Actually, I do think that is likely. Given the way events play out, it seems that the location of Earth was part of a trail of breadcrumbs, so to speak. I think Regret discovered Earth and on it, the location of Delta Halo, without recognizing the significance of Earth. That is discovered only later, from 343 Guilty Spark-- which Truth then announces on the PA system, when he says the Great Journey begins there.

Prior to that point, I do not think the significance of Earth was fully realized. In fact, if at the beginning of Halo 2 the Hierarchs had been in possession of that information, they would likely not even have bothered to visit Delta Halo at all. Perhaps the Ark is only of use once the system is in "standby" mode, but it is not clear that they would have understood that.

In addition, the Ark may have a function beyond that of "backup control room" as it appears Truth is announcing his intention to visit Earth before the Arbiter stops Delta from firing. In that case, while Truth may avail himself of the possibility of activating the system from Earth, that may not have been his purpose for initially going there.

[quote=]But what information did Regret have and how did he come by it? Perhaps Truth and possibly Mercy set him up. Since it seems that Truth has no problem letting his fellow Hierarchs get knocked off. He may have sent Regret there, leaving out certain details, but with full knowledge it was the human home world. I'm assuming though that Regret received his information second hand which is quite a lot to assume.[/quote]

I wouldn't put it past Truth to betray Regret in that way, but if that was the case, there would have been no need for Regret to apologize for arriving on Earth early, unless Truth was so crafty as to lure Regret into attacking early, thinking it was his own idea. Possible, but most likely unnecessarily complicated.

[quote=]Also Mercy's statement in the cut scene before High Charity: "...and this time, none of you will be left behind." I'm fully aware that this could have several meanings but it could, if viewed a certain way, relate to my theory. I wouldnâ€™t bet the farm on it though.
[/quote]

The meaning of that line isn't yet clear. It could refer to a previous Halo firing-- or, rather, to a Covenant legend about the previous firing, which no doubt they refer to as the Forerunners Great Journey (which they are attempting to duplicate). Whether by this he means that everyone gets to go on the journey, or that no one will be left alive if they don't, isn't clear. However, if our understanding of what the Halo system does is correct, the distinction isn't a meaningful one. But it is important in divining the extent of the Hierarchs' knowledge as well as their true intent.

hmmm...i retake my previous statements about forerunners=humanity and replace them with the "forerunners SAVED humanity" still no ship needed if earth is a shield world. Maybe forerunners and humans mated, and after millions of years they began to look like modern humans (evolution duh).

Also, why wouldn't the covenant be angry with humans, thier gods saved us, a much more primitive species then themselves, and when they discovered this, they were worshiping forerunners before the war, maybe they wanted to destroy the human race because they didn't want to change there entire religion, or maybe they didn't want to respect an inferier spieces (humans) for being linked to the forerunners.

im still basing this on my "Earth is a shield world" theory, but maybe the forerunners escaped into earth (the entrance to the hollow center is in africa maybe?) and after the blst come to the surface and find that all of thier advances in technology have been loast in the blast so over millions of years they...de-evolve into humans?hmmmm...

I seriously doubt that IAC crashed on 05. The reddish thing you see explode bears too much resemblance to a Pillar of Autumn type ship, and IAC definitely does not look like PoA. Furthermore, when you walk through its wrekage in Quarantine Zone, some parts remind me of the "ribs" in that one multiplayer map. This suggests that the thing that explodes is of Forerunner origin, not human. My theory for IAC arriving on High Charity is that when Sarge and Keyes went to retrieve Index #2, they left IAC in orbit and took a pelican. Then the flood hijacked IAC and transported onto High Charity, while Tartarus was messing with Arbiter, Miranda, and Sarge. Gravemind obviously does not need IAC to get onto High Charity since it has amazing powers of teleportation.

You are right that the IAC isn't the object that we see crash in QR, although the very first time I saw that scene, I thought that's what I was witnessing.

However, other commenters are suggesting that perhaps the IAC will have extricated itself from High Charity, perhaps to land or crash-land on Halo 05, either during Halo 3 or between the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3.

Mostly people are wondering how Gravemind is going to escape (which seems inevitable) if we can safely conclude from Cortana's statement about High Charity's power source that it is immobilized after Truth's departure.

So waiting two weeks isn't going to solve the questions posed here. :)

However, it is NOT the IAC that crashes at the start of Quarantine Zone. In fact, you can see the IAC, quite intact, if you look backwards from the gondola that takes you into the Library near the end of that level.

Why were the sentinels helping the heretic? The purpose of the sentinels is to contain the flood while the oracle(343 Guilty Spark) helps the reclaimer activate Halo to wipe out the galaxy. So, like the humans, the heretics don't want the halo activated; but they are being helped by sentinels (they continually attack the Arbiter) even though he is on the side (The Covenant) that wants to statrt the Halo and wipe out the galaxy-kill the flood-fulfill the Great Journey. It didn't make sense to me, can anyone explain?

I think like the sentinels on 04, those on the mining installation were under 343 Guilty Spark's direction.

As such, they were defending against the Flood.

Further, I think as 343GS revealed the true nature of Halo to the Heretic, he became convinced that he and his followers were not a "threat to the array" (to put things in IRIS-speak) but that the Covenant regulars led by Half-Jaw and the Arbiter were.

Who created halo? Where did the flood come from? HAHAHA u guys are retards. Bungi probably doesnt know half the time what they are talking abt in their stories...u ppl wasted half your teenage life playing halo...tch tch...nice plot summary though

"Who created halo? Where did the flood come from? HAHAHA u guys are retards. Bungi probably doesnt know half the time what they are talking abt in their stories...u ppl wasted half your teenage life playing halo...tch tch...nice plot summary though"

People have their fun in different ways. Maybe all of us should quit doing the things we like just because others think they are a waste of time, right?.....right?

the one plot hole that really confuses me centers around Sgt. Johnson. at one point, you see him and commander keyes taken hostage by the brute Tartarus. but near the end you see him commanding a scarab. how did johnson escape and commander keyes didn't?

When the Arbitor arrives at the top of the station to take control of the scorpion you will see that the Brutes have two humans in captivity there. We can only assume that one of those humans is Sgt. Johnson and that he is able to gain control of the scorpion while the Arbitor is fighting the Brutes.